1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable terminal such as Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) phones, game phones, chatting phones, camera phones, MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3) phones, cellular phones, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, and Hand Held Phones (HHPs) and in particular, to a speaker device for a slim portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable terminal refers to an electronic apparatus which a user can carry with him/her to perform wireless communication with a desired partner. In consideration of portability, designs of such portable communication apparatuses have been developed to emphasize not only compactness, slimness, excellent gripping property, and lightness, but also multimedia availability, thus having a wider variety of functions.
Conventional portable terminals may be classified into various types according to their appearance, such as bar-type portable terminals, flip-type portable terminals, and folder-type portable terminals. The bar-type portable terminal has a single housing shaped like a bar. The flip-type portable terminal has a flip which is pivotably mounted to a bar-shaped housing by a hinge unit. The folder-type portable terminal has a folder coupled to a single bar-shaped housing by a hinge unit in such a manner that the folder can be rotated in order to be folded to or unfolded from the housing. Further, portable terminals may be classified into neck wearable type portable terminals and wrist wearable type portable terminals according to the position at or the way in which a user puts on the portable terminals.
Additionally, portable terminals may be classified into rotation-type portable terminals and sliding-type portable terminals according to ways of opening and closing the portable terminals. In the rotation-type portable terminal, two housings are coupled to each other in such a manner that one housing rotates to be opened or closed relative to the other while the housings face each other. In the sliding-type portable terminal, two housings are coupled to each other in a manner that one housing slides to be opened or closed relative to the other. These variously classified portable terminals can be easily understood by those skilled in the art.
Conventional portable terminals are now capable of transmitting data at a high speed in addition to the basic function of performing voice communication. In other words, according to increasing demand by consumers, portable terminals now provide a service using a wireless communication technology capable of transmitting data at a high speed, for example, a multimedia service like transmission of moving pictures.
Research on miniaturization of the portable terminal has been conducted in consideration of portability of the portable terminal, but the miniaturization has been hampered by an increase in the size of a display device due to a multimedia service. As a result, manufacturers of portable terminals have made an effort to reduce the thickness of the portable terminal.
Although a high-quality sound is essential to use a multimedia service, there are many difficulties in providing the high-quality sound in a slim portable terminal. In other words, since a slim portable terminal cannot secure a resonating space for a sound output from a speaker unit due to its narrow internal space, it is difficult to implement a mellow volume and a sound in a bass region.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved speaker device for providing high-quality sound in a slim portable terminal.